


Talk To Me

by Snurtlicious



Series: Voltron One-Shots [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: M/M, but shiro x no-angst is not, post s6 angst, shiro x nap is canon, tl;dr shiro and keith talk about the Event at the end of s6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 11:09:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15047549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snurtlicious/pseuds/Snurtlicious
Summary: Following the battle, the paladins return to Olkarion to plot their trip to Earth. However, Keith takes the moment to confront the avoidant Shiro and determine why he keeps dodging Keith after his return.





	Talk To Me

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This fic contains major plot spoilers for season 6! Read at your own risk!

                Following the questionable fall of Lotor in the quintessence field and the destruction of the Castle of Lions, the paladins endeavored to return to Earth where Pidge and Matt’s father had the schematics to create their own castle. However, they knew without the teludav, they had no means of interstellar travel that wouldn’t take some time. In order to plot their next move, and also steal a moment with Shiro, Keith suggested that they return to Olkarion in the next system to plot their trip.

                The ride from the sector with the quintessence field to Olkarion in the black lion was tense. Krolia knew too much and Romelle knew practically nothing. Shiro, while glad to be back, hadn’t spoken to Keith too much either. The moment they boarded the black lion, Keith had wanted to take Shiro to the cockpit alone and talk about what he’d experienced in the astral realm or how guilty Keith felt that he hadn’t noticed the other Shiro had been a clone all along. As much as he didn’t want to consider it, Keith felt like Shiro had been dodging him since he woke up.

                Keith didn’t let it bother him too much. Shiro had spent, to the best of his estimation, a little less than a year trapped inside the black lion. Keith’s grip on how much time had passed outside of the quantum abyss was tenuous at best and he hadn’t bothered checking a galactic calendar to find out the real passage. The bottom line was that Shiro had been trapped, alone, and Keith let the clone take over the black lion in his stead. Part of it made him deeply furious, but he mostly felt hollowed out by how utterly he failed to protect Shiro.

                Krolia had seen Keith’s entire history with Shiro, every fight that Keith got in that was inevitably broken up by him, Shiro teaching him how to drive, the night Keith had stayed awake until sunrise to fawn over a video of Shiro receiving a medal again and again, how utterly and completely destroyed Shiro’s untimely death had made him… If Keith knew anything, it was that his mother knew how he felt and he took solace that she would know how turbulently his emotions flowed with the real Shiro sleeping somewhere inside the lion’s hull.

                Romelle, on the other end, was still a mystery to Keith. Her motives for travelling with them were questionable, though she had no family to return to on the so-called “New Altea” that Lotor had made them under the guise of a quintessence farm. The thought of the drained Alteans still sent a shiver down his spine. How they had ever thought they could trust Lotor, Keith didn’t know and couldn’t find it within himself to care at that moment.

                As the lions landed on Olkarion, Keith again tried to pull Shiro aside only to be brushed off and then interrupted by some of Lance’s inane bickering. Keith had to say that after so long apart, it was almost endearing how little Lance had changed. He might have tolerated it for longer had he no bigger fish to fry. He brushed Allura, Hunk, and Pidge off to chase after Shiro into the quarters the paladins had once occupied before. However, that was when Keith realized Shiro had the clone’s memories. Voltron never ventured to Olkarion until after they rescued the clone.

                The sound of his own heartbeat and his shoes on the steel were really all Keith could hear as he ran over every word they had spoken since the clone was saved, every moment the two shared, the burn from Shiro’s energy sword that ran up the side of his face.

                Keith had worked himself up so much by the time he spotted Shiro entering a room, he practically broke the mechanism that slid the door shut when he forced it back open barehanded.

                “Shiro, wait,” Keith growled, shoving the heavy metal door back into the slot enough to slip through. The room was poorly lit, only a dim green bulb tinted the room enough for Keith to make out Shiro’s form a few feet away.

                Shiro’s face paled when they made eye contact and he scooted deeper into the bed nook in the wall and out of Keith’s sight.

                “Not now, Keith, I-I need some time to think,” Shiro insisted. Keith couldn’t take no for an answer. He had spent so long in the quantum abyss knowing that something was wrong and trying to come up with a plan to make it right. Practically his first vision was of their fight and the sight of that much hatred ever in Shiro’s eyes had weighted his heart for years.

                “We need to talk, Shiro.” Keith assertively stepped in front of the bed and his expression fell when he realized how small Shiro had made himself in the corner. Keith knew he had to have been glad to be back but how could he unpack all the trauma of what happened? The trauma from the clone’s memories of being utterly and completely controlled? No version of Shiro would have said those things to Keith without a hand to pull the strings, Keith was certain of that.

                “Keith, I know, but I can’t right now,” Shiro muttered, keeping his head in his lap. His hair had become a snowy gray that easily reflected the green light, not that Keith had much experience with snow except from TV. It served to make him look older and younger, though Keith knew that it would only serve as a reminder of what he’d been through. The Galra had taken so much time from Shiro’s life; Keith knew he would have to find a way to make it right even if there were no easy solutions.

                “We have to, Shiro, please,” Keith took a seat on the edge of the bed, a short distance between them.

                Shiro covered his head with his only hand, the black paladin armor’s lights glowing slightly. “What is there to say, Keith? I know what happened, is that what you want to hear? He was me, Keith. Even if he was a clone, everything he did and said was what I would have too. Being in this body almost makes it feel like I was never gone, but I know that wasn’t me.” Shiro lifted his hand and clutched at the spot where Keith had severed the Galran prosthetic. It was only after Keith removed it that the clone almost seemed to return to normal before he lost consciousness completely.

                Keith didn’t speak for a long moment. “Let’s get the rest of that stupid thing off you,” he said finally, reaching towards where the metal had overtaken his shoulder. With how Shiro had been acting, Keith almost felt like Shiro wouldn’t have allowed him the touch, though he made no movement as Keith pried the remnants of the fake arm from his shoulder. With most of the arm gone, it seemed as though the limb’s remaining components had burned themselves out and there was nothing to keep it attached to what remained of Shiro’s real arm.

                The weight of the metal in his hands made Keith feel awful again. Shiro had been carrying around an arm that had to have weighed ten times what a normal human arm weighed and he had never complained about it once.

                “I didn’t believe what he said to me,” Keith told him, tossing the metal scrap aside. “I know you would never really think that.”

                “How can you know, Keith? How do you know that I’m even me right now?” Shiro returned, his voice cracking as he spoke.

                “I believe in the lion and I believe in Allura too.” Keith sighed slightly, turning to climb onto the bed in the nook next to Shiro. Of course, that was the moment Shiro chose to push Keith away and the look of terror and anxiety on Shiro’s face sent Keith into a tailspin. Shiro’s gaze only served to fuel how absolutely broken he looked, the fear marring his otherwise placid demeanor.

                “Shiro, what’s wrong? Talk to me, please!” Keith grabbed Shiro by the shoulder before he could introvert again, pulling him back so they were face to face.

                “I didn’t want to hurt you, Keith, I don’t want you to get hurt,” Shiro yelled. “I would rather have stayed dead knowing you were safe then to know what I do.”

                Keith was taken aback. Was someone plotting against him and Shiro knew? “What are you talking about?”

                “It’s not anything I can’t handle,” Shiro brushed it off. Keith was reaching his limit, the chant of patience yielding focus wearing thin in the back of his head.

                “Shiro, you should focus on recovering, not the next inevitable battle. You need to think about yourself for once,” Keith lectured. “Let me protect you.”

                “No, I don’t want that, Keith, not for you.” Shiro tried to shrug out of Keith’s grip, though the lack of weight at his side caused him to fall over into the wall and then forward onto his chest. Shiro pushed himself back up with his arm, though his hand was clearly shaking when he was upright.

                “Then what do you want from me? You told me to pilot the black lion if anything happened to you and I did. I thought everything would be like how it was before, but Allura came in to fill the fifth spot and then I thought you came back and I didn’t know what to do. Marmora asked me to join them so I left Voltron to let you be the black paladin again because I knew you were a better leader than me,” Keith shot, everything he’d wanted to tell Shiro for the several-hour long trip to Olkarion rushing out at once.

                “I spent two years in the quantum abyss getting to know my mom and she taught me things about my past and about her that I never even dreamed possible. I also knew that something was wrong with you the entire time I was there and I didn’t know what to do. Shiro, we spent so long away from each other so many times and it’s killing me when you’re away. The second I saw all of those clones and knew that you were slipping away from me again… I would rather die than live without you. I love you.” Keith finished, red-faced, his stomach in knots, and his heart thudding his chest.

                “Keith, I,” Shiro stammered, clearly not sure what to say, and then fell silent. He brooded for a long moment, quietly breathing while Keith only became more hot-blooded. “What do I have to do to protect you?”

                “You don’t,” Keith replied instantly. “I don’t need to be protected.”

                “But you do!” Shiro slammed his hand into the metal wall causing the light to flicker between them. “That Galra witch knows, Keith, she knows that you’re my weakness! She knows that I love you, what if she hurts you, Keith? She tried to make me kill you and I almost did it! I couldn’t stand to live anymore without you!” Shiro broke out in hysterics, revealing the truth of his reservations. Every dark place in Shiro’s mind had been touched by the witch and it shook him to the core that someone might have such intimate knowledge of his true feelings.

                “Shiro, I won’t let her hurt us anymore,” Keith took Shiro’s fist and slowly pulled it open and then held it to the burn on his face. “This scar will remind me how I fought for you. Voltron helps save the universe but, Shiro, you’re _my_ universe and I will always save you.”

                Shiro gazed into Keith’s eyes for a moment, the authenticity of his words finally piercing the dark veil around Shiro’s heart. “As many times as it takes?”

                “As many times as it takes.” Keith affirmed, wrapping both of his arms around Shiro’s back.

                “I do too,” Shiro said a moment later. “I love you too. Thank you for never giving up on me.”

                Now that his mood had calmed, Keith felt the corners of his mouth rise. With the reassurance and support he’d gained from his mother, Keith felt no reservations leaning Shiro’s chin up and placing a kiss on his lips the way he’d wanted to since he was ten years old.

                Shiro seemed surprised at first though he made no motion to move away. They sat there after that for a long moment until Keith was sure Shiro was finally comfortable.

                “Will you help me change clothes later?” Shiro asked. “I tried to take the armor off by myself but I’m still not used to the whole one-arm thing.”

                Keith smirked a little. “Absolutely, I think I still have your clothes from before you,” he paused. “before you disappeared.”

                Shiro hesitated to say something. “Right.”

                Ignoring the bit of awkwardness at the mention of Shiro’s untimely demise, the two moved to leave the room and return to the team. However, the last thing Keith expected was for Lance, Pidge, Hunk, and Allura to be huddled around the door with their ears practically pressed against it.

                At once, Pidge and Hunk struck a pose.

                “Voltron helps save the universe but, Shiro, you’re my universe and I will always save you,” Pidge mimicked, dipping Hunk towards the floor.

                “Oh Keith,” Hunk chirped in falsetto. “Kiss me now, please!”

                Keith’s expression flattened instantly, though Shiro finally cracked a smile and laughed for the first time since he’d come back. “I see you’ve been working on your impressions. You’ve gotten a little better since Lotor and Allura.”

                “Hey, how did you know that?” Pidge questioned, a little offended that they’d been caught.

                “My clone was pretty sly, I have to admit. He never thought twice about all the snooping, but he cared about you all the same way I did,” Shiro explained. “I hope you don’t have any hard feelings against him for what he did.”

                “I wouldn’t say all is forgiven, but I think we can understand, Shiro. The important thing now is that you’re back with us. We’re all grateful to the black lion for saving you,” Allura spoke for the group.

                “Yeah, not like that fripping bulgonian ever did anything to us until the end, anyway,” Lance brushed it off. “If you have his memories, it’s like you were never even gone in the first place.”

                “No, Lance, he was,” Keith argued. “We need to be more vigilant than ever. With Lotor as our enemy, that makes all of the Galra our enemy again. Shiro says that Haggar was the one who had the clone infiltrate our ranks so we’ll have to be on the lookout from every angle to make sure we keep Shiro safe.”

                “Keep _Shiro_ safe, huh?” Hunk chuckled.

                “I mean, keep all of us safe,” Keith corrected himself, the slip causing him to blush ever so slightly.

                “We know what you meant,” Pidge shook her head. “Geez, first Lotor and Allura then Keith and Shiro? What’s next, Lance and Allura, Hunk and Shay? When do I get a love interest?”

                “I thought you were too busy dating your computer,” Lance jabbed, a wily smile on his face as he took off down the hall before Pidge could get too mad.

                “Hey! I don’t spend all day on my computer, just most of it!” Pidge took off after him, Hunk hot on her heels.

                “I suppose I should take care of this before Coran steps in with one of his argument cures. I’d rather not witness the Karthulian Forgiveness Ritual ever again.” Allura excused herself politely. “Oh, and Shiro, I’m glad to have you back. I’m deeply sorry we didn’t realize the truth until it was nearly too late.”

                “Don’t worry about it, princess. I should thank you for what you’ve done too. I wouldn’t be here without you,” Shiro called to her back. “I wouldn’t be with you without her.” He turned back to Keith, gazing down much less than he had to before to look him in the eyes.

                “But now you’re here and I’m not letting you go again,” Keith promised before grabbing Shiro’s collar and pulling him down into another kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Babey, this idea popped into my head and I wrote pretty much the entire thing in like an hour. Voltron kind of has a reputation for not discussing their previous big emotional moments so I'm kind of wondering what exactly they would mention in regards to the whole Shiro thing. This is just my hot gay take on what I would like to see. I'm considering maybe writing a multi-chapter sheith fic (probably an AU of some kind) so hit me with a comment if you liked this, please! It'll motivate me to work on something Good.


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